What are the components of a good climbing kit for recreational tree climbing?

I've enjoyed climbing and cutting trees for many years. I now want to go to higher levels, but safety is a primary concern, because I am afraid of heights.

I'm about to order gear for recreational climbing. (My long term goal is professional cutting.) Because mechanical ascenders (chest/hand/foot/knee) are not part of my life-support system, will generic ascenders be adequate? I'm not planning to cruise a canopy or go to heights with such ascenders, but just practice with them.

If an ascender fails, will my climbing line/prusik catch me? I'm unsure if I'd be ascending while on 2 points because I haven't been able to test this yet.

I want to be safe but as far as I can tell it looks like you could just foot-lock + prusik-slide your way up a rope w/o any mechanical devices at all, and that you and your rope (& prusik) are all that matters as far as loads and safety. If I were ascending with a foot ascender that snapped on me wouldn't I just kinda spin-out on my rope?

Please critique my intended purchases below to see if they are adequate for climbing and for safety.

o 150' of a 16-strand rope; unsure if it should be double-braided. I am a very cheap person but for buying rope, I'd only consider name-brand stuff (Yale/etc) and would only buy from a place I knew I could trust which, so far, is only sheffield/bartlett's/wesspur.

o Prusik & carabiner to attach myself to my rope (triple-lock/30-whatever-kN is the ansi for hardware) via my rock climbing saddle. I don't know the brand but it is "diesel" and certainly seems overkill/heavy but redundancy is fine with me here!

o a simple pulley (not for rigging or life-support), a figure 8 (not for life support), 1-2 extra carabiners (proper kN but not triple-lock.)

Am I right in thinking that, if I've got my rope and (sling/multi-function-lanyard/flipline/etc), and it's OK to un-hook myself from one setup while advancing the other, then I could climb as high as my line safely allowed?

I plan to use some sort of friction-saving device on any redirects but still want my rope to last, which is why I was thinking 16-strand. Are there any other options for my purposes? I definitely don't want some super stiff or heavy line and I absolutely need to be able to tie knots in it. I'm placing my first order with a 50/50 expectation something will be wrong and I'll need order #2 before I can even try anything out.

posted over 5 years ago

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WantToClimb‭

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